Complex contractual networks

The course will examine this year the complex contractual networks, with a special focus on the business-to business (B2B) networks, like franchise, innovation and organizational networks, and especially their configuration in the digital economy. The course approaches these contractual networks from the point of view of network and complex system theory. The focus lies on the legal evaluation and regulation of the emergent properties of these networks -such as common investments, common output and distribution of profits, trust and cooperation- and the obstacles that the doctrine of privity of contract poses for the regulation of these properties. It also examines the various solutions to the collective action problem through the distribution of powers and rights within the network, according to their classification as centralized, decentralized and distributed networks. The course should allow students to understand the basic characteristics of the various types of contractual networks, the structural problems that arise for each different type and the possible solutions to these problems, enabling them to confront legal questions that appear in a B2B network setting.